Interesting stuff, haven’t seen this covered here or on the FP. The SCOTUS reviewed two cases of vehicular searches that were disputed, citing the 4th Amendment.

On case one, some shithead got his girlfriend to rent a car, which he then drove, despite not being listed as a driver on the rental agreement. He got pulled over for hogging the left lane on a highway. Once the officers found that he wasn’t listed on the rental agreement, and that he had outstanding warrants in another state, they asked to search the car. They say he said yes then no, he says he said no. They said it doesn’t really matter anyways and proceeded, and found 49 bricks of heroin in the trunk.

According to what I found on the internet, 1 brick = 50 bags. 1 bag = $20 or so. That means he had 2,450 doses of heroin worth about $49k.

The argument here is whether or not the cops needed his permission to search the car. If it was his car, they would. If it was a stolen car, they would not.

On the second case, another shithead lead police on a multiple high speed chases on a motorcycle, and eluded them each time. He eventually went to his girlfriend’s house and parked the bike, with a cover over it. The police tracked him back to the girlfriend’s house, lifted the cover on the motorcycle to confirm the plate #, and then arrested him.

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The argument on this one is whether the police were in violation by lifting the cover to read the plate, without having a warrant.